MOSES, that is, Moses the son of Mendel, a Jew of Berlin, and one of the most celebrated writers in Germany, died there in the year 1785; at the age of 57. His fourth attempt as an author was soon after 1767, by a work entitled Jerusalem; in which, besides other bold and unjustifiable opinions, he maintains, that the Jews have a revealed law but not a revealed religion; that opinions are not subjects of revelation; and that the only religion of the Jewish nation is that of nature. He acquired great honour by his Phaedon, or "Discourses on the Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul," translated into the French 1773, 8vo; in which he unfolds this important truth, the great foundation of all morality, with the wisdom of an enlightened philosopher and the charms of an elegant writer. In consequence of this excellent work, he was styled the Jewish Socrates by some of the periodical writers; but he wanted the firmness and courage of the Grecian philosopher. His timidity, and even puffanility, defects too common in speculative men, prevented him from being of any essential service to his nation; of which he might have become the benefactor by being the reformer. The pliancy of his character, his soft, modest, and obliging disposition, gained him the esteem alike of the superstitious and of the incredulous. After all, he could never procure admission to the Berlin society, or to the conversation of the king of Prussia. At his death he received from his nation those honours which are commonly paid to their first rabbins. Contrary to an imprudent custom prevalent among the Jews of burying their dead before sunset, his interment was delayed till 24 hours after he expired. Though Mendelshon was descended from a respectable family, he was very poor. In early life he entered into a counting-house of his own nation, where he greatly recommended himself by his capacity and integrity in business: But philosophy and literature soon became his principal occupation; and to the famous Leffing he was indebted for councils which, without diverting his attention from those pursuits that were necessary to his subsistence, accelerated his progress in his literary career. Even after the death of his benefactor, Mendelshon retained for him the sincerest regard and the most lively gratitude. Notwithstanding the very strict regimen which he observed, he survived him only a few years; for his feeble frame and weak constitution were gradually and insensibly undermined by intense application to study.